“The latter was driven largely by the changes in consumer purchasing behaviour due to the poor weather, as consumers shifted purchasing away from impulse outlets towards the more promotionally driven take-home channel,” A.G Barr said today.

Describing “intense” competition in UK soft drinks over the last six months, the company pointed to the London Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

“However it is the drive to increase volume through promotion by some of our industry competitors which has had the greatest impact on the market,”A.G Barr said.

“Many major brands have increased the volume of sales promoted through 'buy one get one free' and less than half price activity,” the firm added, noting that it had responded with measured promotions that sought to maintain brand equity.

Britvic synergies dialed in

On September 5 A.G Barr announced that it had approached Britvic with a view to a possible merger to create a joint group, 63% owned by the latter’s shareholders.

Shore Capital analyst Phil Carroll said in early September that, due to Britvic’s exclusive bottling agreement with PepsiCo for sales of Pepsi and 7UP in the UK and Ireland, a PepsiCo board member at Britvic suggested tacit blessing for the Barr talks.

Others analysts have suggested that PepsiCo itself or Suntory could swoop for Britvic, as we head towards the October 3 deadline for any merger with A.G Barr.

Damian McNeela, an analyst at Panmure Gordon, today reaffirmed a ‘hold’ rating on A.G Barr’s stock, and said any potential merger synergy savings had already been dialled into the share price (452p as we went to press).

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